| A web of contradictions | | BIBAK | 1-14 | |
| Phil Turner; Susan Turner | |||
| We describe our use of contradictions, a concept central to a popular
formulation of activity theory, to derive requirements of a new technical
system to support an administrative system. Contradictions are the underlying
causes of disturbances in the free operation of workplace activities. We argue
and demonstrate that the resolution of such contradictions can be used as the
basis for the (user-centred) design of a new system. We conclude that
contradictions are both conceptually valuable in understanding the design of
systems and are of considerable practical use. Keywords: Activity theory; Requirements; Case study; User-centred design | |||
| Perceived disorientation: an examination of a new measure to assess web design effectiveness | | BIBAK | 15-29 | |
| Jaspreet S. Ahuja; Jane Webster | |||
| In this paper, we present the development of a new measure of perceived
disorientation that helps to explain experiences with Web-based systems. Two
studies, incorporating over 300 participants, provide evidence for the
measure's construct validity. The first study is a survey that develops this
new measure and distinguishes it from ease of use. The second study, an
experiment investigating users performing an information retrieval task on the
Web, further distinguishes disorientation from ease of use, and relates it to
actions. Moreover, the study compares the effects of Web designs containing
simple and global navigation systems; these systems related to perceived
disorientation but not to ease of use or actions. Finally, the study examines
disorientation's relationship with user performance and demonstrates that
perceived disorientation relates more strongly than actions to performance. Our
perceived disorientation measure is simple and quick to administer to users,
and we conclude by suggesting that designers will find it useful in assessing
and comparing Web designs. Keywords: Disorientation; Lost; Ease of use; Navigation; World Wide Web; Internet;
Performance; Web design; Construct validity; Electronic commerce | |||
| Teallach: a model-based user interface development environment for object databases | | BIBAK | 31-68 | |
| Tony Griffiths; Peter J. Barclay; Norman W. Paton; Jo McKirdy; Jessie Kennedy; Philip D. Gray; Richard Cooper; Carole A. Goble; Paulo Pinheiro da Silva | |||
| Model-based user interface development environments show promise for
improving the productivity of user interface developers, and possibly for
improving the quality of developed interfaces. While model-based techniques
have previously been applied to the area of database interfaces, they have not
been specifically targeted at the important area of object database
applications. Such applications make use of models that are semantically richer
than their relational counterparts in terms of both data structures and
application functionality. In general, model-based techniques have not
addressed how the information referenced in such applications is manifested
within the described models, and is utilised within the generated interface
itself. This lack of experience with such systems has led to many model-based
projects providing minimal support for certain features that are essential to
such data intensive applications, and has prevented object database interface
developers in particular from benefitting from model-based techniques. This
paper presents the Teallach model-based user interface development environment
for object databases, describing the models it supports, the relationships
between these models, the tool used to construct interfaces using the models
and the generation of Java programs from the declarative models. Distinctive
features of Teallach include comprehensive facilities for linking models, a
flexible development method, an open architecture, and the generation of
running applications based on the models constructed by designers. Keywords: Model based user interface development; Object databases; User interfaces to
databases | |||
| Linking tasks, dialogue and GUI design: a method involving UML and Lean Cuisine+ | | BIBAK | 69-86 | |
| C. J. Scogings; C. H. E. Phillips | |||
| Unified Modelling Language (UML) is rapidly becoming the international
standard for software design notation and methods. However, it offers little or
no support for the design of the user interface. Models and notations are
required for describing user tasks and the structure of the human-computer
dialogue to support these tasks. Lean Cuisine+ provides a notation for both
dialogue and task modelling. This paper describes a method for the initial
steps of interface design which incorporates both the UML and Lean Cuisine+
notations and provides a means of representing tasks in the context of the
dialogue structure of the user interface. Keywords: User interface design; Dialogue modelling; Task modelling; Unified modelling
language; Lean Cuisine+ | |||
| From doing to being: bringing emotion into interaction | | BIB | 89-92 | |
| Gilbert Cockton | |||
| Frustrating the user on purpose: a step toward building an affective computer | | BIBAK | 93-118 | |
| Jocelyn Scheirer; Raul Fernandez; Jonathan Klein; Rosalind W. Picard | |||
| Using a deliberately slow computer-game-interface to induce a state of
hypothesised frustration in users, we collected physiological, video and
behavioural data, and developed a strategy for coupling these data with
real-world events. The effectiveness of our strategy was tested in a study with
thirty six subjects, where the system was shown to reliably synchronise and
gather data for affect analysis. A pattern-recognition strategy known as Hidden
Markov Models was applied to each subject's physiological signals of skin
conductivity and blood volume pressure in an effort to see if regimes of likely
frustration could be automatically discriminated from regimes when frustration
was much less likely. This pattern-recognition approach performed significantly
better than random guessing at classifying the two regimes. Mouse-clicking
behaviour was also synchronised to frustration-eliciting events and analysed,
revealing four distinct patterns of clicking responses. We provide
recommendations and guidelines for using physiology as a dependent measure for
HCI experiments, especially when considering human emotions in the HCI
equation. Keywords: Affect; Affective computing; User interface; Pattern recognition;
Human-computer interaction; Biosensing; Emotion physiology | |||
| This computer responds to user frustration:: Theory, design, and results | | BIBAK | 119-140 | |
| J. Klein; Y. Moon; R. W. Picard | |||
| Use of technology often has unpleasant side effects, which may include
strong, negative emotional states that arise during interaction with computers.
Frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety and similar emotional states can affect
not only the interaction itself, but also productivity, learning, social
relationships, and overall well-being. This paper suggests a new solution to
this problem: designing human-computer interaction systems to actively support
users in their ability to manage and recover from negative emotional states. An
interactive affect-support agent was designed and built to test the proposed
solution in a situation where users were feeling frustration. The agent, which
used only text and buttons in a graphical user interface for its interaction,
demonstrated components of active listening, empathy, and sympathy in an effort
to support users in their ability to recover from frustration. The agent's
effectiveness was evaluated against two control conditions, which were also
text-based interactions: (1) users' emotions were ignored, and (2) users were
able to report problems and 'vent' their feelings and concerns to the computer.
Behavioral results showed that users chose to continue to interact with the
system that had caused their frustration significantly longer after interacting
with the affect-support agent, in comparison with the two controls. These
results support the prediction that the computer can undo some of the negative
feelings it causes by helping a user manage his or her emotional state. Keywords: User emotion; Affective computing; Affect; Social interface; Frustration;
Human-centred design; Empathetic interface | |||
| Computers that recognise and respond to user emotion: theoretical and practical implications | | BIBAK | 141-169 | |
| Rosalind W. Picard; Jonathan Klein | |||
| Prototypes of interactive computer systems have been built that can begin to
detect and label aspects of human emotional expression, and that respond to
users experiencing frustration and other negative emotions with emotionally
supportive interactions, demonstrating components of human skills such as
active listening, empathy, and sympathy. These working systems support the
prediction that a computer can begin to undo some of the negative feelings it
causes by helping a user manage his or her emotional state. This paper
clarifies the philosophy of this new approach to human-computer interaction:
deliberately recognising and responding to an individual user's emotions in
ways, that help users meet their needs. We define user needs in a broader
perspective than has been hitherto discussed in the HCI community, to include
emotional and social needs, and examine technology's emerging capability to
address and support such needs. We raise and discuss potential concerns and
objections regarding this technology, and describe several opportunities for
future work. Keywords: User emotion; Affective computing; Social interface; Frustration;
Human-centred design; Empathetic interface; Emotional needs | |||
| Editorial | | BIB | 173-174 | |
| Bruce Thomas; Jim Warren | |||
| Developing adaptable user interfaces for component-based systems | | BIBAK | 175-194 | |
| John Grundy; John Hosking | |||
| Software components are becoming increasingly popular design and
implementation technologies that can be plugged and played to provide
user-enhanceable software. However, developing software components with user
interfaces that can be adapted to diverse reuse situations is challenging.
Examples of such adaptations include extending, composing and reconfiguring
multiple component user interfaces, and adapting component user interfaces to
particular user preferences, roles and subtasks. We describe our recent work in
facilitating such adaptation via the concept of user interface aspects, which
support effective component user interface design and realisation using an
extended, component-based software architecture. Keywords: Adaptive user interfaces; Component-based user interfaces; Software
architectures for user interfaces | |||
| The stretchable selection tool: an alternative to copy and paste | | BIBAK | 195-209 | |
| Mark Apperley; Dale Fletcher; Bill Rogers | |||
| Copy and paste, or cut and paste, using a clipboard or paste buffer is the
principal facility provided to users for transferring data between and within
application software. This mechanism is clumsy to use where several pieces of
information must be moved systematically, for example, when filling a form or
building a table.
We present an alternative, more natural user interface facility to make the task less onerous, and to provide improved visual feedback. Our mechanism -- the stretchable selection tool (SST) -- is a semi-transparent overlay augmenting the mouse pointer to automate paste operations and provide information to prompt the user. Two prototype implementations are described, one of which functions in a collaborative software environment allowing users to cooperate on multiple copy/paste operations. We also present the results of an informal user evaluation contrasting the SST with traditional cut and paste, and with another multiple copy/paste system. Keywords: Copy and paste; Cut and paste; Paste; Multiple selection; Collaborative;
Transparent overlay; Augmented pointer | |||
| Which animation effects improve indirect manipulation? | | BIBAK | 211-229 | |
| B. H. Thomas; V. Demczuk | |||
| This paper describes an experiment to explore the effectiveness of animation
in improving indirect manipulation operations. Indirect manipulation operations
are those initiated by command menus and buttons to perform a transformation on
a graphical object or set of graphical objects. The particular improvement is
an operation's ability to show both what would happen if the operation were
committed and what would happen if it were cancelled while an operation is
being considered. The experiment required subjects to watch a simple alignment
operation for a set of graphical objects. They were then asked to record the
original placement of those graphical objects. Each task used one of four
visual cues: modified telltale, wiggle, colour, or no visual cue. We found the
modified telltale, wiggle, and colour visual effects significantly more
effective than no visual feedback for cuing the user as to original position of
the graphical objects. The modified telltale and colour effects were
significantly more effective than the wiggle effect. The major conclusion drawn
from this experiment is the use of visual feedback improves a user's ability to
remember the previous position of graphical objects after an alignment
operation. Keywords: Graphical user interfaces; Indirect manipulation; Animation; Warping | |||
| Visual gesture interfaces for virtual environments | | BIBAK | 231-250 | |
| R. G. O'Hagan; A. Zelinsky; S. Rougeaux | |||
| Virtual environments provide a whole new way of viewing and manipulating 3D
data. Current technology moves the images out of desktop monitors and into the
space immediately surrounding the user. Users can literally put their hands on
the virtual objects. Unfortunately, techniques for interacting with such
environments are yet to mature. Gloves and sensor-based trackers are unwieldy,
constraining and uncomfortable to use. A natural, more intuitive method of
interaction would be to allow the user to grasp objects with their hands and
manipulate them as if they were real objects.
We are investigating the use of computer vision in implementing a natural interface based on hand gestures. A framework for a gesture recognition system is introduced along with results of experiments in colour segmentation, feature extraction and template matching for finger and hand tracking, and simple hand pose recognition. Implementation of a gesture interface for navigation and object manipulation in virtual environments is presented. Keywords: Gesture recognition; Virtual environments; Computer vision; Interaction | |||
| Supporting special-purpose health care models via adaptive interfaces to the web | | BIBAK | 251-267 | |
| James R. Warren; Heath K. Frankel; Joseph T. Noone | |||
| The potential of the Internet and intranets to facilitate development of
clinical information systems has been evident for some time. Most Web-based
clinical workstation interfaces, however, provide merely a loose collection of
access channels. There are numerous examples of systems for access to either
patient data or clinical guidelines, but only isolated cases where clinical
decision support is presented integrally with the process of patient care, in
particular, in the form of active alerts and reminders based on patient data.
Moreover, pressures in the health industry are increasing the need for doctors
to practice in accordance with 'best practice' guidelines and often to operate
under novel healthcare arrangements. We present the Care Plan On-Line ()
system, which provides intranet-based support for the SA HealthPlus Coordinated
Care model for chronic disease management. We describe the interface design
rationale of, which is based on constrained adaptation of the user interface
while maintaining user control. We also describe the implementation framework,
which is flexible and broadly applicable to support new healthcare models over
intranets or the Internet. Keywords: Alerts; Clinical practice guidelines; Decision support; Health information
systems; General practice medicine; Mixed-initiative user interface | |||
| Universal usability | | BIB | 269-270 | |
| David G. Novick; Jean C. Scholtz | |||
| Developing a practical inclusive interface design approach | | BIBAK | 271-299 | |
| Simeon Keates; P. John Clarkson; Peter Robinson | |||
| It is known that many products, both software and hardware, are not
accessible to large sections of the population. Designers instinctively design
for able-bodied users and are either unaware of the needs of users with
different capabilities, or do not know how to accommodate their needs into the
design cycle.
The aim of this paper is to present a methodological design approach for implementing inclusive interface design. This will begin with a discussion about what constitutes good inclusive design and suitable measures of success. A summary of the principal methods for designing for users with different capabilities is given along with a description of a model, the inclusive design cube, that displays how the different approaches are complementary and can provide complete population coverage. Two case studies shall be used to illustrate the use of the model. The first details the design of an interface for an interactive robot. The second looks at the design of an information point for use in a post office, and shall be used to highlight the use of both the design approach and the model. Keywords: User-aware design; Inclusive design; Functional impairments; Case studies | |||
| E-graffiti: evaluating real-world use of a context-aware system | | BIBAK | 301-312 | |
| Jenna Burrell; Geri K. Gay | |||
| Much of the previous research in context-aware computing has sought to find
a workable definition of context and to develop systems that could detect and
interpret contextual characteristics of an user environment. However, less time
has been spent studying the usability of these types of systems. This was the
goal of our project. E-graffiti is a context-aware application that detects the
user's location on a college campus and displays text notes to the user based
on their location. Additionally, it allows them to create notes that they can
associate with a specific location. We released E-graffiti to 57 students who
were using laptops that could access the campus wireless network. Their use of
E-graffiti was logged in a remote database and they were also required to fill
out a questionnaire towards the end of the semester.
The lessons learned from the evaluation of E-graffiti point to themes other designers of ubiquitous and context-aware applications may need to address in designing their own systems. Some of the issues that emerged in the evaluation stage included difficulties with a misleading conceptual model, lack of use due to the reliance on explicit user input, the need for a highly relevant contextual focus, and the potential benefits of rapid, ongoing prototype development in tandem with user evaluation. Keywords: Context-aware computing; Universal usability; Wireless network | |||
| Auditing accessibility of UK Higher Education web sites | | BIBAK | 313-325 | |
| David Sloan; Peter Gregor; Paul Booth; Lorna Gibson | |||
| Given the increasingly important role the World Wide Web plays as an
information source, and yet with the continuing problems that certain
individuals, particularly those with disabilities and those using
'non-standard' Web browsing technology, it is vital that web resource providers
be aware of design features which introduce barriers affecting the
accessibility of on-line information.
The role of the accessibility audit is seen as an important one in uncovering, describing, and explaining potential accessibility barriers present in a web site. It furthermore acts as an educational tool by raising awareness in accessible design amongst web designers and content providers in providing them with a recovery plan for improving the accessibility of the audited resource, and potentially other resources. In 1999, the authors were commissioned to carry out accessibility audits of 11 web sites in the UK Higher Education sector. This paper discusses the development of the methodology used to carry out the audits, the findings of the audits in terms of accessibility levels of the subject sites, and feedback as a result of the auditing process. It concludes by looking at ways in which the methodology adopted may be tailored to suit specific types of web resource evaluation. Keywords: Accessibility; Methodology; Usability; Web resource; UK Higher Education | |||
| Intelligent speech for information systems: towards biliteracy and trilingualism | | BIBAK | 327-339 | |
| Helen M. Meng; Steven Lee; Carmen Wai | |||
| We are developing a human-computer spoken language system capable of
processing English, Cantonese and Putonghua (two dialects of Chinese). Such
biliteracy and trilingualism characterize Hong Kong's language environment.
Users can simply converse with the system to access real-time information in
the foreign exchange domain. The system supports user calls with fixed-line as
well as cellular phones, both of which have high penetration in Hong Kong. As
such, we strive towards universal usability in developing speech and language
interface technologies by (i) supporting multiple languages for user diversity;
(ii) requiring no specialized training for system usage to avoid user knowledge
gaps; and (iii) supporting device variety in telephone-based information
access. Keywords: Speech interfaces; Spoken language systems; Multilingual; Conversational
systems | |||
| Yes/No or Maybe -- further evaluation of an interface for brain-injured individuals | | BIBAK | 341-358 | |
| Eamon P. Doherty; Gilbert Cockton; Chris Bloor; Joann Rizzo; Bruce Blondina; Bruce Davis | |||
| Brain-body interfaces (BBIs) have been shown through a number of studies to
be useful assistive technology devices for recreation and communication.
However, severely motor impaired persons with no other means of interacting
with their environment have had difficulties using the standard communication
software for the Cyberlink, the commercially available BBI device which we used
in our studies. We have therefore developed a simple Yes/No program, drawing on
a range of design and evaluation approaches from Human-Computer Interaction
research. This paper presents the first extensive evaluation of this program.
Its evaluation combines formal assessments with observations from users, carers
and technology and mental health professionals who are involved in the
research. Our conclusions are that the performance of severely impaired
individuals cannot be readily separated from that of novice unimpaired users,
that worthwhile results can be achieved with the Yes/No program, but at the
moment the cost of using a Cyberlink is too high for most assistive technology
contexts. However, for severely impaired individuals, Cyberlink use may be the
only form of recreation and communication available to them, and thus the
current limitations of the technology are acceptable for this user population. Keywords: Brain-body interface; Yes/No program; Human-computer interaction | |||
| Head-operated computer controls: effect of control method on performance for subjects with and without disability | | BIBAK | 359-377 | |
| Edmund F. LoPresti; David M. Brienza; Jennifer Angelo | |||
| Head-operated computer controls provide an alternative means of computer
access for people with physical disabilities. A person's ability to use such
head controls may be reduced if he or she experiences neck movement
limitations. Five experimental methods of compensating for neck movement
limitations were evaluated in comparison to a standard head control interface.
Twenty-two subjects without disabilities and three subjects with multiple
sclerosis performed icon acquisition exercises using the standard interface and
each of the five experimental compensation methods. Subjects without
disabilities had less tendency to overshoot the target icons when using an
interface with decreased sensitivity or one in which head movements controlled
cursor velocity rather than cursor position (p<0.05). Subjects with multiple
sclerosis tended to be more accurate when using an interface with increased
sensitivity, and had less tendency to overshoot icons when using head movements
to control cursor velocity rather than cursor position. Overall, subjects
tended to demonstrate faster performance when using an interface with reduced
sensitivity. Keywords: Disability; Head controls; Configuration; Gesture input; Order of control;
Head movement | |||
| Scenarios and task analysis | | BIBAK | 379-395 | |
| Dan Diaper | |||
| A Critical Review of Carroll's book on scenario-based design is offered
[Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions (2000)].
Carroll characterises scenarios as 'stories about use'. The paper demonstrates
that Carroll's proposals about scenarios and their use in software engineering
can be fitted into the broader framework of task analysis in Human-Computer
Interaction. Keywords: Scenarios; Task analysis; Systems analysis; Software engineering | |||
| Scenarios and the HCI-SE design problem | | BIBAK | 397-405 | |
| David Benyon; Catriona Macaulay | |||
| Diaper's critical review of Carroll's book 'Making Use' raises a number of
interesting issues about how to set about the design of interactive systems. In
particular Diaper poses an issue that has long dogged the area of
Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering (HCI-SE), namely how to
deal with the formality required by the SE side and the sensitivity to context
required by the HCI side. In this paper, we report on the experience of using
scenario-based design and reflect on the effectiveness of the approach. This
work fits into a broader context concerned with understanding exactly what the
HCI-SE design problem is and now it might be best conceptualised. Keywords: Scenarios; Design; Object-oriented; Human-Computer Interaction and Software
Engineering; Philosophy | |||
| Commentary on 'scenarios and task analysis' by Dan Diaper | | BIB | 407-409 | |
| Fabio Paterno | |||
| Commentary on "scenarios and task analysis" by Dan Diaper | | BIB | 411-412 | |
| Tom Carey | |||
| Data entry for mobile devices: an empirical comparison of novice performance with Jot and Graffiti | | BIBAK | 413-433 | |
| Andrew Sears; Renee Arora | |||
| In this article, we report on an empirical comparison of two common gesture
recognition techniques. Thirty-one novices completed six realistic tasks using
either Jot or Graffiti. An analysis of error-corrected data entry rates
indicates that participants using Jot completed the tasks significantly faster
than those using Graffiti. An analysis of uncorrected errors yielded no
significant differences while several questions assessing subjective
satisfaction yielded significantly more positive results for Jot. A new event
called Period of Difficulty (PoD) is proposed to help identify situations were
novices experience significant difficulty. Users experience more PoD when
entering basic alphanumeric characters using Graffiti than they do using Jot.
In contrast, Jot users experience more PoD when entering symbols than Graffiti
users. Further, a detailed analysis of the PoD provides insights regarding the
definition and use of the inherent accuracy metric while highlighting
opportunities to improve the underlying technologies. We conclude by providing
specific recommendations for improving the usability of Jot and Graffiti for
novice users and outlining several additional directions for future research. Keywords: Data entry; Mobile devices; Jot; Graffiti; Gesture recognition | |||
| Using music to communicate computing information | | BIBAK | 435-456 | |
| Paul Vickers; James L. Alty | |||
| The audio channel remains little used in most computing applications, often
its use being relegated to providing trivial sound effects whose novelty value
soon wears off. Nevertheless, in principle sound offers much to the process of
human-computer interaction as for most people the notion of auditory imagery is
easily accepted.
In this paper we explore how sound, specifically musical sound, can be used to communicate computing information. The findings of two studies are presented. The first investigated how pitch intervals and musical phrases of complex (non-sinusoidal) tones can be recognised. The second study aimed to demonstrate that musical structures could communicate information about high-level programming language structures and program run-time behaviour. Both studies showed that music could successfully be used as a communication medium and that listeners did not need to be musically trained to benefit from the audio signals. Finally, recommendations for further work are made. Keywords: Music; Communication; Visualisation; Auditory display; Program auralisation | |||
| Musical program auralisation: a structured approach to motif design | | BIBAK | 457-485 | |
| Paul Vickers; James L. Alty | |||
| In an earlier paper, Vickers and Alty (2002) showed that musically untrained
users could make use of musical cues to understand computing information. Using
a technique known as musical program auralisation, they showed that music could
communicate run-time and structural information about Pascal programs.
This paper describes how a set of hierarchically related auralisation motifs was designed and constructed within a formal musical framework. These auralisations were then evaluated in an experiment to determine how well they could be interpreted by computer science students. The results showed that the musical motifs were generally understood by the subjects and that any prior musical training of the subjects did not affect their ability to interpret the musical signals. Based on the results of the experiment and study of some cognitive aspects of music perception, a set of organising principles for musical program auralisation is proposed. Finally, recommendations for further study are made with particular regard to assessing the usefulness of the auralisations in program debugging situations. Keywords: Music; Communication; Visualisation; Auditory display; Program auralisation | |||
| Users' schemata of hypermedia: what is so 'spatial' about a website? | | BIBAK | 487-502 | |
| J. Shawn Farris; Keith S. Jones; Peter D. Elgin | |||
| This study examined users' schemata of hypermedia. It is frequently assumed
that users' schemata contain spatial information about how the pages of a
website are interconnected. However, it is not clear how these schemata could
contain such information when none is presented to the user while he/she is
exploring the website. Unfortunately, there has been little research addressing
this assumption. Toward that end, the reported study examined the mental
representations (i.e. schemata) acquired when using hypermedia by
systematically varying the interconnections within a website while holding the
information that the website contained constant. Analyses of 40 participants'
drawings of the website's organization indicate that drawings largely reflected
conceptual (i.e. semantic) relationships, and not the true nature of the
website's interconnections. In light of this research, it is suggested that we
reevaluate the conjecture that hypermedia is mentally represented in ways
similar to the physical world. Keywords: Hypermedia; Schema; Mental representation; Connection-structure; Spatial | |||
| A longitudinal study of attitude changes in a medical service organisation after an email introduction | | BIBAK | 503-519 | |
| O. Balter | |||
| A health care organisation was observed over a period of four years during
their introduction of email to 6000 employees. The observed managers were
positive to email from the start, despite problem with attachments and concerns
for lacking computer knowledge. Email had a positive effect on employees
attitudes to perceived computer knowledge as well as their abilities to learn
more about computers. Negative for all was the blind mass mailings from within
the organisation. Keywords: Attitudes; Email; Managers; Longitudinal | |||
| Testing dialogue systems by means of automatic generation of conversations | | BIBAK | 521-546 | |
| R. Lopez-Cozar; A. De la Torre; J. C. Segura; A. J. Rubio; V. Sanchez | |||
| This paper presents a novel technique that allows testing spoken dialogue
systems by means of an automatic generation of conversations. The technique
permits to easily test spoken dialogue systems under a variety of lab-simulated
conditions, as it is easy to vary or change the utterance corpus used to check
the performance of the system. The technique is based on the use of a module
called user simulator whose purpose is to behave as real users when they
interact with dialogue systems. The behaviour of the simulator is decided by
means of diverse scenarios that represent the goals of the users. The simulator
aim is to achieve the goals set in the scenarios during the interaction with
the dialogue system. We have applied the technique to test a dialogue system
developed in our lab. The test has been carried out considering different
levels of white and babble noise as well as a VTS noise compensation technique.
The results prove that the dialogue system performance is worse under the
babble noise conditions. The VTS technique has been effective when dealing with
noisy utterances and has lead to better experimental results, particularly for
the white noise. The technique has permitted to detect problems in the dialogue
strategies employed to handle confirmation turns and recognition errors,
suggesting that these strategies must be improved. Keywords: Dialogue system; Dialogue management; Speech recognition; Sentence
understanding; Natural language generation; Speech synthesis; User simulator | |||
| A grounded theory approach to modelling learnability of hypermedia authoring tools | | BIBAK | 547-574 | |
| G. J. Elliott; E. Jones; P. Barker | |||
| One potential barrier to the development of educational hypermedia is the
design of current hypermedia authoring tools (HATs) that unfortunately require
higher knowledge and skills levels than possessed by most academics. Whilst the
usability of hypermedia has been extensively researched, the usability of the
tools required to build hypermedia has not. Learnability of HATs, an associated
factor of usability, has been similarly neglected. Analysing contemporary
approaches to the study of human computer interaction, this paper concludes
that they do not support the kind of 'theory building' required to study and
describe the learnability of HATs. Grounded theory (GT) is posited as an
alternative approach, which if applied correctly can provide explanatory theory
to inform HAT design. The paper describes the application of GT to two studies
of the ease-of-learning of HATs. The first study uses quantitative and
qualitative data to explore the experiences of 16 subjects learning to use
HATs. In the second study, key HATs are demonstrated to a focus group of IT
trainers to analyse their observations of users learning HATs. From these
studies a causal model of learnability of HATs that is more detailed and
complete than that offered by other contemporary theories of learnability was
developed. The paper concludes that applying a GT approach can enhance HCI
research through the development of explanatory, extensible and evolutionary
theory to inform HAT design. Keywords: Hypermedia; Learnability; Grounded theory; Authoring tools | |||
| Trust in information sources: seeking information from people, documents, and virtual agents | | BIBAK | 575-599 | |
| Morten Hertzum; Hans H. K. Andersen; Verner Andersen; Camilla B. Hansen | |||
| The notion of trust has been virtually absent from most work on how people
assess and choose their information sources. Based on two empirical cases this
study shows that software engineers and users of e-commerce websites devote a
lot of attention to considerations about the trustworthiness of their sources,
which include people, documents, and virtual agents. In the project-based
software engineering environment trust tends to be a collaborative issue and
the studied software engineers normally know their sources first-hand or have
them recommended by colleagues. Outside this network people are cautious and
alert to even feeble cues about source trustworthiness. For example, users of
e-commerce websites -- generally perceived as single-user environments -- react
rather strongly to the visual appearance of virtual agents, though this is
clearly a surface attribute. Across the two cases people need access to their
sources in ways that enable them to assess source trustworthiness, access alone
is not enough. Keywords: Trust; Information-seeking behaviour; Information sources; Personified
virtual agents; Usability criteria | |||
| Web navigation and the behavioral effects of constantly visible site maps | | BIBAK | 601-618 | |
| David R. Danielson | |||
| Knowledge regarding how Web information-seekers behave with respect to the
structures and cues they are provided with may shed light on general principles
of navigation in electronic spaces, and assist designers in making more
informed structural decisions. This study examines user movement through
hierarchically structured Web sites and the behavioral effects of a constantly
visible, textual contents list for relatively small sites or more extensive
local views than are generally used on the Web today. The site overview
resulted in users abandoning fewer information-seeking tasks. Users with such
context dig deeper into the site structure, make less use of the browser's Back
button, and frequently make navigational movements of great hierarchical
distances. Navigational correlates of success and reported confidence for users
with the overview differ from those without such context. Both with and without
a constant overview, the relationship between the source and destination pages
may help predict the amount of time spent at the destination. Experimental
reports are preceded by a review of click-stream navigation behavior research. Keywords: Navigation; Site map; Orientation; Usability; World Wide Web; Information
seeking | |||
| Making use is more than a matter of task analysis | | BIB | 619-627 | |
| John M. Carroll | |||
| Task scenarios and thought | | BIBAK | 629-638 | |
| Dan Diaper | |||
| The position that scenarios are low fidelity task simulations and can be
understood from a broadly defined, performance based perspective of task
analysis is one that is defended. It is argued that scenarios used for
engineering purposes are impoverished in comparison with the sort of properties
enjoyed by good stories and that the metaphor of scenarios as stories is one of
limited utility. A general psychological theory that thought can be described
as envisioned scenarios is espoused and that this will be generally useful to
non-psychologists and facilitate the understanding of the limitations of
scenarios as used for the purposes of scenario-based design. Keywords: Task analysis; Scenarios; Human-computer interaction; Software engineering;
Simulations; Fidelity; Stories; Cognitive psychology | |||
| Intelligence and interaction in community-based systems | | BIB | 639-642 | |
| Kostas Stathis; Patrick Purcell | |||
| Exquisite variety: computer as mirror to community | | BIBAK | 643-662 | |
| Ian Beeson | |||
| An approach is developed to building information systems whose purpose is to
express (rather than regulate) the life of a community group. The story of a
community group, as understood and told by its members, is taken as the basis
for building a computer system which reflects the life of the community.
Development of the system is seen as an open-ended process of discovery,
collaboration and experiential learning. Engagement with the technology is
understood as a 'tactical' practice on the part of the users. A fieldwork
exercise conducted along these lines with one community group, in which the
group used hypermedia technology to make a shared story, is described. Aspects
of process and form in story making on a computer, in this project and more
generally, are discussed. Keywords: Variety; Story; Hypermedia; Community; Collage | |||
| Living memory: agent-based information management for connected local communities | | BIBAK | 663-688 | |
| Kostas Stathis; Oscar de Bruijn; Silvio Macedo | |||
| We investigate the application of multi-agent systems to develop intelligent
information interfaces for connected communities, a class of computer
applications aimed at enhancing the way people interact and socialise in
geographically co-located communities such as neighbourhoods. In this context,
we study the problem of providing effective information management in support
of social interaction when a diverse range of computing devices is employed.
The novelty of our approach is based on combining innovative interactive
devices with a framework based on agent roles in order to support the effective
flow of community-related content for the people of a given locality. In
particular, we have integrated existing techniques for information retrieval
and filtering with measures of content popularity, to ensure that documents in
the community system are optimally available. After reporting on the potential
presence of the system in the community, we report on the development of a
framework for multi-agent systems in which agents provide a number of services
aimed at facilitating personalised and location-dependent information access to
members of the community. We also present a summary of the results of an expert
evaluation of the information flow resulting from the communication between
agents, and a user-evaluation of the information dissemination facilities
provided by the system. Keywords: Connected communities; Interaction design; Software agents; Information
dissemination; User profiles; Acquaintance models | |||
| Design and deployment of community systems: reflections on the Campiello experience | | BIBAK | 689-712 | |
| A. Agostini; G. De Michelis; M. Divitini; M. A. Grasso; D. Snowdon | |||
| The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in what technology can do
to sustain communities. Within the Campiello project innovative information
technologies have been adopted to support the dynamic exchange of experiences
among people living in cities with high levels of tourism, in this way reducing
the progressive diminishing of identity suffered by the local communities of
these cities. The system developed has been used, for an experimental period,
in a neighborhood of Venice, Italy. In the paper, we reflect on the whole
Campiello experience, considering all its development phases. These reflections
are organized as a set of issues that require attention, respectively, in the
design and deployment of community systems, illustrated with examples from
Campiello. We believe that due to the relative novelty of community systems,
this type of reflection is important to inform the design of future systems
such that they better fulfill their objectives and become an integral part of
community practices. Keywords: Community-based systems; Community memory; Innovative interfaces; Large
screens | |||
| Conference assistant system for supporting knowledge sharing in academic communities | | BIBAK | 713-737 | |
| Yasuyuki Sumi; Kenji Mase | |||
| This paper describes our ongoing attempts to build a communityware system by
presenting a project of providing digital assistants to support participants in
an academic conference. We provided participants at the conference with a
personal assistant system with mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies and
facilitated communication among the participants. We also made online services
available via the Web to encourage the participants to continue their
relationships even after the conference. In this paper, we show the system we
provided for the project and report the results. Keywords: Communityware; Conference assistant; Personal agent; Support for new
encounters; Knowledge sharing | |||
| Effectiveness of spatial representation in the formation of network communities: experimental study on community organizer | | BIBAK | 739-759 | |
| Koji Kamei; Kunihiko Fujita; Eva Jettmar; Sen Yoshida; Kazuhiro Kuwabara | |||
| In this paper, we present and discuss Community Organizer, a system designed
to support network communities. The main characteristic of Community Organizer
is the use of spatial representations for the relationships among community
members including the communications exchanged among these members. These
spatial representations reflect the degree of closeness of interests and
concerns among the members, and are intended to provide users with clues on how
to form network communities. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the
proposed spatial representations, we conducted experiments with two different
versions of the software. One version offered meaningful spatial
representations while the other version did not. The subjects who used the
former software version felt a greater sense of 'community', enjoyed using the
software more, and actively used it longer than the subjects using the latter
software version (control condition). These results indicated that the proposed
spatial representations are effective in supporting network community
formation. Keywords: Network community; Communities of interests; Community support; Community
formation; User interface; Empirical study; Socialware | |||
| Discovering user communities on the Internet using unsupervised machine learning techniques | | BIBAK | 761-791 | |
| G. Paliouras; C. Papatheodorou; V. Karkaletsis; C. D. Spyropoulos | |||
| Interest in the analysis of user behaviour on the Internet has been
increasing rapidly, especially since the advent of electronic commerce. In this
context, we argue here for the usefulness of constructing communities of users
with common behaviour, making use of machine learning techniques. In
particular, we assume that the users of any service on the Internet constitute
a large community and we aim to construct smaller communities of users with
common characteristics. The paper presents the results of three case studies
for three different types of Internet service: a digital library, an
information broker and a Web site. Particular attention is paid on the
different types of information access involved in the three case studies:
query-based information retrieval, profile-based information filtering and
Web-site navigation. Each type of access imposes different constraints on the
representation of the learning task. Two different unsupervised learning
methods are evaluated: conceptual clustering and cluster mining. One of our
main concerns is the construction of meaningful communities that can be used
for improving information access on the Internet. Analysis of the results in
the three case studies brings to surface some of the important properties of
the task, suggesting the feasibility of a common methodology for the three
different types of information access on the Internet. Keywords: User communities; Collaborative filtering; User modelling; Machine learning;
Web mining | |||
| When bugs sing | | BIBAK | 793-819 | |
| Paul Vickers; James L. Alty | |||
| In The Songs of Insects, Pierce (1949) described the striped ground cricket,
Nemobius fasciatus-fasciatus, which chirps at a rate proportional to ambient
air temperature. Twenty chirps-per-second tell us it is 31.4 °C; 16 chirps
and it is 27 °C. This is a natural example of an auditory display, a
mechanism for communicating data with sound. By applying auditory display
techniques to computer programming we have attempted to give the bugs that live
in software programs their own songs. We have developed the CAITLIN musical
program auralisation system Vickers and Alty, 2002b) to allow structured
musical mappings to be made of the constructs in Pascal programs. Initial
experimental evaluation [Interacting with Computers (2002a,b)] showed that
subjects could interpret the musical motifs used to represent the various
Pascal language constructs.
In this paper we describe how the CAITLIN system was used to study the effects of musical program auralisation on debugging tasks performed by novice Pascal programmers. The results of the experiment indicate that a formal musical framework can act as a medium for communicating information about program behaviour, and that the information communicated could be used to assist with the task of locating bugs in faulty programs. Keywords: Auditory display; Music; HCI; Auralisation; Debugging; Pascal | |||
| Prototype evaluation and redesign: structuring the design space through contextual techniques | | BIBAK | 821-843 | |
| Andy Smith; Lynne Dunckley | |||
| This paper addresses the problems involved in the progress through
evaluation and redesign from one interface prototype to the next stage of
development. An approach is proposed based on situated action techniques for
the early identification of user interface issues and their translation into
design factors that lead to design improvements. The approach can be used
within parallel prototyping or iterative development. Situated action is
increasingly popular for the participative identification of user requirements
for information systems and is usually implemented at an early stage in systems
development. In contrast the most frequently used method for user participation
within detailed interface design is within iterative user-based evaluation
which is often performed relatively late in the development. The method
described involves linking developer-user contextual evaluation sessions, where
developers observe user's responses to an interactive prototype, and team
evidence analysis sessions, where a group of designers work together to derive
design decisions with the evidence collected from the users. The proposed
method is tested in an experimental design. The proposed techniques provide a
rich source of user evidence that can be brought to bear on the enhancement of
prototype user interfaces. The study also showed how team working within a
group of developers is important to effective design. Keywords: Interface design; Contextual inquiry; LUCID; Developer-user contextual
evaluation; Team evidence analysis | |||